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April 2019 ertonline.co.uk


19


W


orking alongside various


manufacturers and their associated products and brands from across the consumer electronics and home appliances industry, Exertis is one of the UK’s largest technology distribution providers. The company was one of the first to market


with smart technology a few years ago and it has since developed this range using its experience in other sectors as well as its competitive logistics capabilities. Discussing the importance of emerging technology and how independent retailers can get involved to help drive sales in-store, Rod Slater, Head of Smart Tech & IoT, says that Exertis helps to define what the markets look like through reporting from analyst companies, such as GfK, bringing consultancy, market knowledge and brand relationships to retailers. This is followed up with its long-tail logistics services, such as next-day delivery and even installation to expand the offering that retailers can provide to their customers.


Q: So, what are some of the big areas in electrical retail at the moment? Rod Slater: Things like virtual reality is a rapidly growing category, for example with Google and Facebook really driving this marketplace; premium audio is another – smart speakers and smart assistants are growing so fast it’s unbelievable. In the development of large and small domestic appliances, we’re seeing the ‘smartification’ – for want of a word – of traditional categories that haven’t really seen this before. Washing machines have been around forever, but smart washing machines are new, and consumers and retailers are trying to understand what the smart element offers. With the changing climate and improvement


in British summer time, this is driving people back into their gardens and smart tech will be going out there too. We’re seeing more and more manufacturers enter this space with outdoor audio products. This presents an opportunity to attract customers. Consumers will go into a retail store if they know


what they want to buy – but they’ll investigate and engage with the retailer if that retailer is talking about and showing things that are new, interesting and innovative and are relevant to their needs. We’re seeing small investment in smart technology at the moment, but the numbers and data we have is saying that this is ready for a much broader adoption.


Q: What exactly is your data telling you? RS: Well, in reality, this smart tech category is going to be growing very fast over the next few years. It’s not just about what’s here now, our forecast says that we’re going to see significant


growth in the retail value of smart tech over the next five years. One of the key things for retailers is understanding, for example, what are the ‘baked beans’ and ‘toilet rolls’ of smart tech – the fast- moving consumer goods? It’s important to capture the purchasing journey that consumers are on, and we can help with that. It all starts with a £29 smart speaker, for example


given as a gift at Christmas. Something like 70 per cent of the six million units shipped in the UK in 2018 were in the peak pre-Christmas period. Once the customer gets their first product and they start adding smart stuff to it, they start to realise that it’s relatively low-cost technology. In addition, we’re at the tipping point with


voice assistants – these will grow even faster with new assistants coming out, and ear buds with smart tech built-in, not to mention car adapters, smart displays and most TV sets today. When it’s ubiquitous and your home responds to you, that’s when it becomes compelling.


Q: How do you see this kind of technology developing? RS: One of the first things we saw, for example, was that it wasn’t until voice technology came along that the smart home made any sense. Prior to that, the smart home promise and vision wasn’t that appealing. In many cases, I use the term ‘smart home’


with a great deal of reservation; there’s far too much conversation about machine learning and artificial intelligence in smart home, but that’s some time away. My vision is looking at a road map of technologies that have relevance at the right time. A smart kettle makes sense, but a smart dishwasher or 


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